FAS May 2013 Meeting
Exoplanets
Explore beyond the Solar System at the May meeting of the Forsyth Astronomical Society.
Prior to the 1990s, the only known planets were the nine orbiting the Sun. At the time, of course, Pluto was considered a Planet. In 1995, astronomers found a Jupiter sized planet orbiting the star 51 Pegasi. This was the first confirmed planet orbiting another star. By early 2013, the number of “exoplanets” exceeded 850. In addition, NASA’s Kepler Mission has identified over 2,700 exoplanet candidates.
However, the real objective is to find an “Earth like” planet in the so-called “habitable zone” around another star. In fact, as I write this on April 18, NASA just announced the discovery of the smallest “habitable zone” planets found to date. The three planets range in size from 40% to 70% larger than the Earth. The race to find that “blue marble” orbiting another star is not only on, but it may be heating up.
Join us at 7:30 PM on Tuesday, May 28 at SciWorks for an overview of the search for planets beyond our Solar System and the quest to find the first Earth like planet orbiting another star.